Regarding errors in Google Places, I have been working with Google Local in Canada for fully six years and have seen a lot of bizarre things happen with my clients’ listings in that time. Usually the odd behavior happens just before the roll out of some major new feature. I’ve seen some of the strangest things ever over the past three or four months. Today things started to get better and I noticed that for the first time the Canadian Places Business Center allows custom categories and now uses the US categories. Before this, I had to switch the URL in the Places Dashboard from &gl=CA to &gl=US in order to get meaningful and useful categories.

For the past six weeks I have been tracking what I can only call a “zombie listing”. I had a client that went out of business on August 31st and used the “Remove this listing from my Google Places account.” to delete the listing. The listing stopped showing for at least a few weeks then one day it appeared back in the results as if it was alive and had never been deleted. It showed as owner verified and had all the content I originally entered yet it could not be accessed because the Place Page account was deleted. Finally, the listing is showing as unverified and the content is empty except for a link to the website which was deleted at the end of August.

The second major problem I have been tracking is with a restaurant client that simply wanted to change his hours. It has been over a month waiting to see if the change will take effect but no luck. A change to the Description stating the new hours has now just appeared after entering it at least four weeks ago. I have used the new “Edit this place” option to submit a change to the hours.

It’s a sorry state of affairs when it takes months to delete a listing and strangers have a better chance of updating a listing than the verified business owner. I can only trust that things will work out as in past.

At least Siri was willing to talk with you. It seems that Siri is a bit moody with me and consistently tells me she is “having trouble making a connection”. Perhaps I’m not asking a question quite as cerebral as the meaning of life…or perhaps Siri could detect that I needed to brush my teeth? Either way, she at least engaged in a conversation with you.

Or perhaps Siri is one of the thousands upon thousands of fans/people like me who are grateful for your massive contribution to the ever changing and oft times frustrating world of Google Places and since she is so appreciative she engages in attempting to answer your questions.

Heck, I told Siri ‘I love you’ and she replied “let’s get back to business’…I felt like a bird shot in flight. Which brings me back to Google Places because I still feel like a bird shot in flight!

I tried to point out where some Google places errors were occurring and also where Google had multiple Google places for the business I was working with and a few days later Google actually called the business and I spoke with a lady that was obviously an outsourced Google employee and they verified what I was sharing and the result was 5 weeks of removal from Google places! YIKES! That was a bit difficult to explain to my client that by doing the right thing and trying to avoid getting a slap for multiple listing resulted in exile. And the dreaded ‘google does not support this business’ message.

It just showed back up today. Is this in your experience normal? The reason I ask is if I do this with other clients It would be nice to know if this is the norm so that I can manage expectations.

Thanks and if Siri and I ever make a connection, please don’t feel slighted…I hear that Siri is a very popular gal…if you know what I mean. Kinda like the old song ‘Run around Sue’